RAIN and MORE RAIN

Rain, Rain, and MORE RAIN!
The Toronto area has been hit with warm weather conditions and a ton of rain. Very little snowboarding going on. Leaving for Ellicottville to try our luck there.

Osler: Great Second Day Out

Osler: Great Second Day Out
I woke up at 7:00 am, got ready quick and picked up my friend Bill from his sister's in Richmond Hill. An hour and a half later we were at Osler. The last time I had ridden Osler was the last day of the 2004/2005 season with my friend Tyler. That last day was one of the best days of snowboarding ever, and I hope today would be the same; it was!
This was Bill's first time to Osler. Before this the only resort he had been to in Collingwood was Blue Mountain. I wanted to show Bill just how great Osler was. I think at the end of the day Bill realized it's potential. The majority of the runs were open. Only the Poplar runs and terrain park runs were closed.
Our first run of the day was on Rattler; my favorite run. I love this run because it has four bumps that progressively get bigger as you travel down the first portion of the run. Off each bump you can do a different trick, or pump through them to do a huge trick off the last bump. Both of us charged the hill, and continued to do so through-out the day.
We went down all the open runs and took a number of detours into the "closed" off runs. The closed off runs were some of the best. We went down one run between the terrain park and "Exhibition". The snow was amazing! The whole way down we were shin deep in power. Both of us were doing powder cuts like we were Travis Williams. This run was so quiet, so floaty, and so amazing Bill nicknamed it "Heaven". I couldn't have agreed more.
The highlights of the day had to be "Heaven" for sure. We also enjoyed "exhibition" a lot, because right in the middle of the run was a small cheese wedge that really booted you in the air. I was pulling some nice tweaked out melon grabs (crooked cobs) off it. Rattler as always was a hit. My best line on Rattler was a frontside 180 melon, to switch FS 180, to indy grab, to backside 360 with and Indy grab. Best of all was hanging out with my good friend Bill and having fun on the slopes with him. Overall another great day of snowboarding.

Bill (bottom) and I (top) at the base of Osler

First Day Snowboarding

First Day Snowboarding
December 10th 2005 marked my first day snowboarding for the 2005/2006 season. It started off with me checking out the Horseshoe Valley website. Every year Horseshoe has this Atomic demo day where the lift passes are $15.00. So I noticed that they were having it this year on the tenth. I immediately told my friend Tyler who was more than willing to go.
The day started at 7:45 am with a phone call from Ty on my cell, which infact woke me up. From there I scrambled to get ready and meet Tyler downtown at his buddy Matt's house. Matt ended up comming with us and driving to Horseshoe (thanx Matt!). Once we got our lift tickets and got our gear in order we waited in line for the main lift to take us up. At the top we strapped in and took our first run down for the season. Other than my wide stance, I felt right at home snowboarding. As the day progressed I got use to my stance once again and the overall feeling of riding on snow again. It a great feeling!
The highlights for the day had to be the friends, the conversation, and the banked drop off on "Pony Tail". Hanging out with friends is always a highlight for anybody. There is no substitute for great friends. The conversations varied from the tame to the other end of the spectrum. They ranged from snowboarding, to video games, to girlfriends, to life, to getting older, to the fucked up shit that people do to get off, and the fact that internet has given these people a place to chat and meet up. Overall some funny ass shit. The snowboarding conditions were pretty good, and Horseshoe was surprizingly not that busy. But the highlight for had to be the drop off on "Pony Tail". All three of us were wipping off tones of tweeked out airs and grabs. No rotations, but what we did was a warm-up for the mad freestyle snowboarding to hopefully follow in the weeks to come. Overall rating of the day = 7